'Cycling's a business – you're employed to do a job': Adam Blythe on his favourite racing memories, life as a broadcaster, and his custom gold bike

Adam Blythe is one of the lead presenters of Eurosport/TNT Sports's cycling coverage. A former British road champion, he raced for teams including BMC, Orica GreenEDGE, Tinkoff and Lotto Soudal during his pro career. Blythe retired in 2019 and moved into sports broadcasting.

This interview is part of Cycling Weekly's Q&A series.

What was your first bike?

I had a little Raleigh BMX, it was wicked. It was white with white plastic wheels. My next bike after that was a Pashley BMX with black plastic wheels.

I think I was around four when I got my first road bike. It was a little red one, basically a gravel bike with mountain bike tyres on it, 20 or 24-inch. When I was five, I got a little blue Edison, which is a small manufacturer near me, just a little guy that welds bikes together.

What was your first race?

I can't remember my first race. I was probably five years old. I remember going on the velodrome when I was five in Manchester, so I was dead young doing that. I was up at the top of the track. I've got a little picture of it, because I couldn't fit on the bike because it had 27-inch wheels. They had to take the seat off and zip tie it to the top tube so I could fit on there.

What is your earliest memory of pro cycling?

People used to grow up watching ITV and Channel 4 with the Tour de France, but I never really used to watch it that much. I'd be aware of it with the Classics and the riders and stuff, but I was generally just playing out on my bike. I used to love it, and I don't really have that memory of pro cycling.

When I really look at it, it was the [Michele] Bartoli days, in that Fassa Bortolo kit. The Frank Vandenbroucke days. But I don't really remember a specific moment.

What is the proudest moment of your career?

That's a tough one. Probably Nationals [Ed. Blythe won the British National Championships road race in 2016]. I knew I was good going into it, but I didn't know how good. I remember getting in the breakaway. There were five of us – Tao [Geoghegan-Hart] was in there. We were in the breakaway for a good 150km and then we got caught by a group of like 10 with Cav [Mark Cavendish] in near the finish. I was out front for a while, and then I beat Cav in the sprint. Weeks after that he had pretty much his most successful Tour de France ever.

Who was the best rider you raced on a team with?

Probably [Philippe] Gilbert. I mean, that guy... In 2011, my second year as a pro, he just turned up to anything. We did a kermesse once, and he said he'd lead me out, and one guy got in between in a corner. Phil got a gap out of it, and there was a bunch sprint happening behind, and he just rode away from us and won. Tactically, everything, he was just incredible.

I learnt how to be efficient from him. Use your energy when you need to use it. The way he moved around the peloton, how efficient he was, but also to enjoy it. You go out training with Phil, and you would spend 80% of the time laughing your head off, and the next 20% trying to hang onto his back wheel when he's doing an effort. He loves the sport with an immense passion.

What is the best thing about your job as a broadcaster?

I get to talk about something with such passion, and that I know a lot about. I love talking about it and I love dissecting things that aren't obvious. I love really going into detail about what effect that will have on a rider or a team, and really trying to explain that so people can understand.

But it's just generally that I love watching bike racing, especially when you get the likes of [Tour of] Flanders or [Paris-]Roubaix, when you're seeing these big champions go against each other, and each little movement they make might be for a reason. I like analysing that and trying to predict it.

What is the best piece of advice you received during your racing career?

Cycling's a business. You're employed to do a job, and if you don't do the job, you'll get sacked.

I learned it from Tim Harris [now Movistar DS], who I lived with in Belgium when I was a first-year amateur. He just said, "You have to remember that you're in a business. You're in a sport, but you're doing business within a sport. The better you do business by winning bike races, the more business you're going to get, the more interest you're going to get, the more money you're going to make."

I hate all the bullshit about the 'wolfpack', family, 'band of brothers' stuff. Next year, that band of brothers is in another team. So what happened to the band of brothers? [They say,] "We're a family. We're always going to be a family." No, you're a group of business people, who really get on and are good friends. But family doesn't get rid of family.

Do you still have your gold bike? And do you still get flack for the head tube?

Yes. With the head tube, I wanted to hide the cables, so I asked a friend of mine to put a fairing on the front. In my head, the fairing looked a lot different, and when he put it on, I was like, "Oh that does not look good." But I've got it. I got Alistair down at Fatcreations to do a [paint] job. He was putting bronze leaf on his bath, making it all shiny and beautiful, and I messaged him saying, "Can you do that on a bike?" He said he should be able to. I said, "Could you do it in gold leaf?" And that's how it came about.

The plan is to get rid of the head tube on it, but I think he's going to have to pull a lot of gold leaf off, and I don't want to do it. If people want to give me flack, that's absolutely fine.